2008 Woodie Awards
Students address the racial divide on campus
by Matt Gallo
Issue date: 4/24/07 Section: News
Junior Jissell Martinez began her college experience in a new atmosphere filled with an assortment of faces and different personalities.
As she sat down for her first floor meeting in the Dickinson residence hall lounge, she surveyed the room in an attempt to interact with her new friends with whom she would be spending the next four years. From across the room, a student caught her attention as he began reciting a racial joke involving Mexicans and blacks to his fellow floor mates.
Shocked. Uncomfortable. Martinez had just experienced her first encounter with racism and racial tension at college.
Nearly three years have gone by since Martinez's moment of racial awakening, but she said nothing has changed. The lack of diversity on campus is growing, Martinez said, as the university is racially divided with most black students living on Laird Campus while South and East Campuses are predominantly white.
"Minorities want to surround themselves with people they feel comfortable around and those who they can connect with the most," she said.
According to the 2006 University Housing Assignment Services survey of underrepresented groups, 184 returning black students currently live in Christiana Towers, while only 31 black returning students live on East Campus. In 2004, a record high 210 returning black students occupied the Towers, compared to 18 returning black students on East Campus.
Black students have been underrepresented on campus in 2006, with only 517 black students on campus - a drop from 559 in 2004.
Martinez, president of the Campus Alliance de La Raza and a resident assistant at the Christina Towers, said the reason for the separation is because black students are the minority on Central and East Campuses.
"There isn't much diversity in those areas," she said. "As a result, Latinos, blacks and Asians are put in uncomfortable situations and refuse to live in those areas."
Martinez said only two minority students lived on her freshman year floor. One was a victim of a hate crime when a white student wrote the N-word on the student's door. As a result, segregation occurs among black and white students because of racial tension.
As she sat down for her first floor meeting in the Dickinson residence hall lounge, she surveyed the room in an attempt to interact with her new friends with whom she would be spending the next four years. From across the room, a student caught her attention as he began reciting a racial joke involving Mexicans and blacks to his fellow floor mates.
Shocked. Uncomfortable. Martinez had just experienced her first encounter with racism and racial tension at college.
Nearly three years have gone by since Martinez's moment of racial awakening, but she said nothing has changed. The lack of diversity on campus is growing, Martinez said, as the university is racially divided with most black students living on Laird Campus while South and East Campuses are predominantly white.
"Minorities want to surround themselves with people they feel comfortable around and those who they can connect with the most," she said.
According to the 2006 University Housing Assignment Services survey of underrepresented groups, 184 returning black students currently live in Christiana Towers, while only 31 black returning students live on East Campus. In 2004, a record high 210 returning black students occupied the Towers, compared to 18 returning black students on East Campus.
Black students have been underrepresented on campus in 2006, with only 517 black students on campus - a drop from 559 in 2004.
Martinez, president of the Campus Alliance de La Raza and a resident assistant at the Christina Towers, said the reason for the separation is because black students are the minority on Central and East Campuses.
"There isn't much diversity in those areas," she said. "As a result, Latinos, blacks and Asians are put in uncomfortable situations and refuse to live in those areas."
Martinez said only two minority students lived on her freshman year floor. One was a victim of a hate crime when a white student wrote the N-word on the student's door. As a result, segregation occurs among black and white students because of racial tension.
Viewing Comments 1 - 4 of 4
old school
posted 4/24/07 @ 7:36 AM EST
I guess things haven't changed in 12 years since I graduated in 1995. I lived on East Campus my freshman year and I was the only asian on my floor and only one of two in the whole building. (Continued…)
old school
posted 4/24/07 @ 7:37 AM EST
I guess things haven't changed in 12 years since I graduated in 1995. I lived on East Campus my freshman year and I was the only asian on my floor and only one of two in the whole building. (Continued…)
old school
posted 4/24/07 @ 7:40 AM EST
I guess things haven't changed in 12 years since I graduated in 1995. I lived on East Campus my freshman year and I was the only asian on my floor and only one of two in the whole building. (Continued…)
methodwriter85
jeremy
posted 4/26/07 @ 3:58 PM EST
I'm another Asian, and in general I don't really feel that kind of racism that hispanics and black people get. I think the V-Tech shootings definitely brought a little bit of that racist bullshit against Korean students, but I defnitely have not felt that backlash, as I am pacific Islander and don't look Korean or Chinese. (Continued…)
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